FIND YOUR PLACE IN THE CHURCH

Sermon given April 27, 1996

by Pastor Jim Erwin, Associate Pastor

McDonald Road SDA Church, Mcdonald, TN

Before we get started this morning, I would like to give some names to you
and let you associate with those names what their particular ministry is.
Let's start with C.D. Brooks and Mark Finley. What kind of ministry would
you associate with C.D. Brooks and Mark Finley? Someone said,
"Preaching." What kind of preaching? Evangelism, yes! When you go to
hear Mark Finley, particularly when he is talking about having meetings,
you sense in him a passion for... what? Souls, yes! How about Kay Kuzma
or Ron and Karen Flowers? What kind of ministry do you associate with
them? Family, yes! Ron and Karen Flowers are in charge of Family
Ministries in the General Conference and Kay Kuzma has located here for
several years now and her ministry. What about Mother Teresa or Gail
Williams? Yes, we think of Community Services or helping the needy. If
we said something about the Perkins we'd think about Vacation Bible
School. And we could mention several names here in the church and you'd
say, "Oh, they do this really well." Let me ask you a question, now.
They have found their place in the church. These people that we have
mentioned. They have, like Mark Finley, they have a passion for souls.
Sometimes we say, "They have a dream." or "The Lord has put a burden on
their heart." or "They have a vision, or a purpose, or a calling." or
"They have found their niche where the Lord can really use them.

How about you? Have you ever wished you knew what your place in the
church is? Have you ever wondered, "What can I do in the church?" or
"Where do I fit into the scheme of things in the church?" "And if I knew
what to do and where to do it, How would I go about that?"

This morning we'd like to look at what we call "Spiritual Gifts",
and look at them as special abilities that God gives to us to do ministry
in the church. If you will take your hymnals and turn to our scripture
reading for today, scripture reading number 776 (1 Corinthians 12, NIV).
Just keep it open there. We will read from it in a few moments. Let's
talk about Spiritual Gifts and what we're to do in the church or what we
can do.

First of all, Paul mentions that the Holy Spirit gives the gifts to every
believer. At least one. Usually several. God gives the Spiritual gifts
to us according to what God's design is and what His grace for us is. A
Spiritual Gift is a divine endowment or and empowerment from God to do a
particular work of ministry in the church. It's used for spiritual
purposes. It's the abilities God gives us to make our own unique
contributions in the church. Those people who have been asked or been
allowed to work in their spiritual gifts find a sense of fulfillment and a
sense of ministry.

Let's look in our scripture reading, number 776, and we'll look down at
the third paragraph from the bottom. (1 Cor. 12:11) "All these are the
work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each man, just as he
determines." So we don't go out and choose... "Well, I think I'd like to
prophecy." "No, Id like to work miracles." "Well, maybe I'd like to
give, to have the gift of giving." No, we don't go out and, like a
lottery, pick and choose our spiritual gifts. Or we don't go, like to a
clearing station for heaven, like you would go over to Southern College
and look at the offerings of the list of classes and choose what you want.
No, it doesn't work that way. God gives the gifts to us as God
determines. It's not something we choose. It's something we can
accept. So they're given to us by the Holy Spirit to minister.

Now, have you ever wondered what's the purpose of Spiritual Gifts? Why
did God give them to us in the first place? Though we have skills and
talents, why did God want to give us something special? Look at
scripture reading number 777 just across the page, the second paragraph
from the bottom, I'd like for us to read that together. It talks about
the purpose of Spiritual Gifts and why God gave them to us. It's for our
benefit, and we'll list several benefits that are listed here. So let's
read (Ephesians 4:12).

"To prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ
may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge
of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the
fullness of Christ."

So this is the purpose for Spiritual Gifts. These are the benefits we as
a church receive from the Spiritual Gifts that God gives to us.

First of all, let's look at the verbs. The first verb is "to prepare",
to get ready. Some versions have, "to equip" the saints. To prepare
God's people. So the Spiritual Gifts are to prepare us for something.
What is that "something?" Works of service. Or we might say, "Works of
deaconing; the kind of things we do in the church."

The second verb is "be built up." To build up what? The church, that's
us, you and me. So the Spiritual Gifts are given to prepare us to be
able to do things for God in the church for people. And it's given so
that we as church members might be built up.

The next verb is... what? Reach, yes! Reach. To reach for... what?
Unity in the faith and... what else? In the knowledge of the Son of
God. So here's another benefit. As we are prepared for works of service,
as the church is built up, then that helps us to reach toward unity
together in the faith and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It's not a
social club. This is unity because we are of the same faith and belief
and because we have the knowledge of Christ; we've committed our lives to
Jesus Christ and we come together as one. Those of you who have traveled
very much know that when you go from one church to another, to another
state, to another country, overseas; when you go to the church and people
find out that your are a Seventh-day Adventist, what happens? There is a
bonding, almost instantly, because we are unified in what we believe and
in our committment to Jesus Christ. As a new Christian, when I began to
experience that, I was amazed, because in the other churches that I had
been taken to... you didn't always see that when you went from the home
church to another in another state. Sometimes you were ignored. So
there is that bonding together in unity.

The next verb is "become." To become what? Mature. Or in the King
James it says something like "perfect", or in other translations you
might find the word, "complete". So that we might grow up in Jesus
Christ; become mature, become complete, and as the King James says,
perfect. So we're becoming mature and complete and perfect.

And the last verb is that we attain... to what? The whole measure of the
fullness of Christ. We experience Jesus more fully.

So you have there, five or six benefits of why the Spiritual Gifts were
given. They were given for us to grow and gather in the church and to
grow and mature in Jesus Christ. And to be more like Him

If we're looking at Spiritual Gifts and what they are, one of the ways to
define what Spiritual Gifts are is to look at what Spiritual Gifts are
NOT. The first NOT, the first things that Spiritual Gifts are NOT is
that they are not Spiritual Fruits. Turn to Galatians 5. Here Paul
tells us in a little nutshell what the Spiritual FRUIT is. In the Greek
and in the English the Fruit of the Spirit is: (verse 22) "Love." If we
really punctuated this so that it would fit the best we would probably
put a colon instead of a comma, because it's written in such a way that
the fruit of the Spirit is love. And we put a colon, we have a list of
ways love manifests itself.

joy,

peace,

patience,

kindness,

goodness,

faithfulness,

gentleness, and

self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

Paul has a commentary on this verse in 1 Corintians 13. What do we call
that chapter? The love chapter, yes! So this is Spiritual Fruit. What
is the relationship between Spiritual Fruit and Spiritual Gifts?
Basically this:

Spiritual Gifts are abilities God gives us to do things
in the church, to perform certain tasks. We may be given a gift to do
something on a short-time basis like some missionaries discovered that in
certain circumstances they either spoke in a different language or were
heard in a different language, but they didn't have that the rest of
their life. On other occasions, missionaries have been given the gift to
instantly speak a very difficult language and they have held it the rest
of thier lives. So a Spiritual Gift is an ability to perform a task for
the up-building of the church and the church members. It's something we
do.

Spiritual Fruit is something that we are. It's our character, how we
relate to other people. A Spiritual Gift refers to our calling, our
function in ministry in the church. Spiritual Fruit has to do with our
relationship with each other and with God. It has to do with our
character and how relate to other people. So Spiritual Gifts are
task-oriented and Spiritual Fruit is character-oriented. So Spiritual
Gifts are NOT Spiritual Fruit.

Another thing that Spiritual Gifts are not is Spiritual Discipline. What
are Spiritual Disciplines? Well, things like fasting and tithing and
going to church when the church is open on Sabbath. If we looked at Gifts
and Disciplines it would go something like this: There is the Gift of
evangelism. People would have the tendency to say that there's only a few
evangelists in the church. They've even done statistics. Dr. Jacobson,
who is in the North American Division or the General Conference, I don't
remember which, but he was in this conference for a while and he thought
about Spiritual Gifts and how it relates to other things and he says that
about ten percent of a congregation has the gift of evangelism. However,
the Bible says we are all to be what? In Acts 1 Jesus told the apostles
to go ye therefore and witness, make disciples. So there's a difference
between the Spiritual Discipline of witnessing and the Spiritual Gift of
evangelism. When you have the gift of evangelism that means that when you
witness, things really happen. But as church members if we do not have
the gift of evangelism, we still witness in many ways. Sometimes it's just
the way we live our lives. Sometime it's how we greet people. Sometime
it's how we relate to people when they're in distress. But we do witness.

Now there are people who have the gift of intercessory prayer. I have met
a few people like that and I am amazed at the way they can pray, and how
God answers their prayers, and how long they can pray. All of us do not
have the ability to spend many hours prayer, maybe. I've talked to some
people who have the gift of intercessory prayer. They can pray for two
days without stopping. And they pray until they sense that God has heard
their prayer and worked a victory in somebody's life. Most of us pray,
but we don't pray like intercessory people do. We pray and ask the Lord
for His power and His gifts and that the Lord will bless certain people
and we pray when we are studying that the Holy Spirit will guide us. Our
prayers here at church are short for the invocation. The prayer of
petition is a little longer but they don't go for a half an hour or an
hour. They're just short. Most of us tend to pray at our own rate. So
there is a Spiritual Discipline of prayer, but there is also a gift of a
special kind of prayer.

We have several small groups in our church and we are studying to learn
things. Now all of us study, and some of us remember better and some
people among who are asked a question always seem to have a real solid
answer. We would say that these people have the gift of knowledge. Most
of us study and we remember most of what we learn. But just because we
don't have the gift of knowledge we say that there's no point to study
the Bible. There's no point in reading what Ellen White says. There's
no point in me studying the Sabbath School lesson. Now we don't say
that, we say that we want to learn what Jesus' will is for me, so I'm
going to study and learn as much as I can about the Bible. So there's a
difference between Spiritual Gifts and Spiritual Disciplines.

What about talents. What about skills that people have? You don't have
to be a Christian to have a skill or a talent. You don't have to be a
Christian to play musical instruments. What's the difference between a
talent and something God specially endows us with the ability to do?
Let's take a story I read.

There was a particular large church that invited in an actor who was very
well known, not only for acting but his speaking ability and his ability
to read poetry. They could hand him almost anything and he could enthrall
and entrance people with the way he read it. It reminds me of Disraeli,
one of England's Prime Ministers. He could spend a morning in the British
Parliament, I understand, reading financial reports and grip the rest of
the parliament's attention so that they were rivitted to what he was
saying. They invited this fellow to come in and he read the Twenty Third
Psalm. And it was great! In fact, when he finished reading the Twenty
Third Psalm, the whole congregation stood up and gave him a standing
ovation. Just great! So excited! There is a place for that. But then
an old saint, and old gentleman came from the back of the church and
walked to the front. There was no doubt the congregation had been moved
in a certain way by the actor's reading the Twenty Third Psalm. But when
the old saint got up to the front of the church and stood there he began
to recite the Twenty Third Psalm. Not with clear beautiful diction like
the news-casters have, but in the language of the area where he lived.
The congregation was a little embarassed, but by the time he finished
reading the Twenty Third Psalm there was a hush in the church, and there
were tears streaming down people's faces. Because, you see, the actor had
honed a skill and a talent, but the old man had been touched by the
Master. His rendering of the Twenty Third Psalm was nothing like the
actor's, but had been endowed by the Holy Spurut to touch people's hearts
and lives with what Jesus meant to them. And that's the difference
between a talent and a skill and a Spiritual Gift. We can all hone our
talents and skills, but it takes the touch of the of the Holy Spirit to
make that talent to reach the hearts and souls and spirit of people with
the love of Jesus Christ.

Well, Spiritual Gifts and Spiritual Fruit are different. Spiritual Gifts
and Talents aren't the same thing. And Spiritual Gifts are not Spiritual
Disciplines. And there's something else Spiritual Gifts don't have
anything to do with. Doesn't have anything to do with titles and
positions. I have the title of Pastor in this church. So does Pastor
Gettys. We have some retired ministers here. But just because Pastor
Gettys and I hold the title of Pastor doesn't mean that we have the gift
of Pastoring. We may have the gift of teaching, we may have the gift of
administration. We may have the gift of leadership. We may have the
gift of helps. We might even have the gift of faith or evangelism but it
doesn't mean we have the gift of pastoring. A person who has no title at
all may have the Gift of Pastoring and function as a Pastor and never
have the title. Spiritual Gifts are not titles. They are abilities to
perform spiritual works to build up the church and to bless people's
lives with the love of Jesus Christ.

Well, how does this work in the church? If you take your hymnal and turn
to scripture reading number 902 (Romans 12:6-8, NIV). Some people when
they look at passages on Spiritual Gifts they look in Ephesians 4 and
says, "Aha! Here is the purpose of the gifts. Here are the ways people
function as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers." And they
look in 1 Corinthians 12 and say, "Oh! There are many ministries, there
are many effects of what happens when people use their Spiritual Gifts."
And in Romans 12 some people say, "These are the basic gifts." Let's read
Romans 12:6-8.

"We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.

If a man's gift is prophesying. let him use it in proportion to
his faith.

If it is serving, let him serve:

if it is teaching,
let him teach;

if it is encouraging, let him encourage;

if it is
contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously;

if it
is leadership, let him govern diligently;

if it is showing mercy, let him
do it cheerfully.

Let's look at the gift of proclamation or prophesying. Look at some of
the characteristics, how you would pick out whether someone had this
particular kind of gift. This again is from Dr. Jacobson, First of all
the person who has the gift of proclamation or prophesying is usually a
very careful student of Scripture. and they have a hatred of evil, and
feel compelled to state their convictions. Not only do they have a hatred
of evil, they anguish over sin. Not just an anger, but an mental anguish.
And as they have this need to express their convictions they also have a
concern for church purity and they happen to be the "reformer" type. In
other words, they're very frank and they're very direct, and they are very
likely to tell you something you may not want to hear. Or they may tell
it to you in a way you don't like the way they said it.

And there are some down-sides, some potential problem areas for someone
exercising the gift of proclamation or prophesy. First of all, if they're
not careful they'll come across as a fanatic. Secondly, they may come
across as being harsh and brutal in their approach to people. And they
may become more concerned with the cause of what they're trying to correct
than they are with the people they're ministering to. And they probably
are a poor listener because they have so many convictions and they are
compelled to tell you what those convictionsa are. Do you know somebody
like this? They probably don't have very many close friends. And they
will forget that there is a spirit of the law as well as the letter of the
law. You may remember Grayfires Bobby. One of my favorite ones is about
Kate Fields.

Kate Fields was a great actress. She was called in to be given an award
at a postmaster banquet for Kentucky. There also happened to be a little
old lady named Kate Fields who was postmistress of some little wide spot
in the mountains. So they started calling for Kate Fields to come up, and
this little bitty lady with an old mountain sack-cloth dress stood up with
her hair up in a bun. Kate Fields, the actress, immediately saw what was
happening. She stood up and called, "Give a hand to Kate Fields of
Cumberland Corners." She knew the spirit of the law. And so she
acquiesed and honored the other Kate Fields.

Not too likely that someone with the gift of prophesy would do that unless
the Holy Spirit was working with them. Remeber what Paul said about John
Mark? "He will not work with us again. He will not work with us. He
flaked out. He quit on us." Paul and Barnabas split up over that. But
later on as the Holy Spirit worked with Paul, what did he say about John
Mark? "Bring him to me. He's very valuable to me."
Well, let's run down through the gifts mentioned in Romans 12 and how it
applies. You go home today and you have company, or you're in somebody's
home as company for Sabbath dinner. Mother senses it's time for the
dessert and she has Mary go into the kitchen to bring the dessert out. As
Mary is coming back through the door from the kitchen into the dining room
she's in a hurry and she kind of stumbles and she's holding the dessert a
little crooked and the dessert falls out on the floor. How would people
with these various gifts react to that situation?

The person with the gift of proclamation would most liukely try to correct
Mary. "Well, that's what happens when you're in a rush and not careful."

A person with the gift of serving would volunteer to help. "Oh, I'll help
clean that up."

A person with the gift of teaching would analyse the
situation. "Well now, the reason that fell off the plate was that you
were overbalanced as you came around the corner and you were in too big a
hurry and you stumbled." Trying to draw a lesson on how we can improve
the next time around.

The person with encouragment or exhortation would say, "Well, we didn't
need all those calories anyway. It'll work out better next time."

The person with giving, if they had been worked on by the Holy Spirit
enough would say, "Oh, don't worry about that. We can just get another
one. If they were in a down mood and the Holy Spirit wasn't in touch
with them they might say, "What a waste." Because people who are into
giving tend to want to make sure everything is accounted for, and that
things are not wasted. Money is not wasted on inconsequentials.

The person with the gift of administration would look at the problem and
say, "Oh, here's the solution. Jim you get the mop. John would you get
the broom, and Peter get the waste basket, and Mary would you get the
wash cloth and Martha would you go back into the kitchen and the person
who has the gift of giving has some ingredients in the car already, in
about five minutes when we get this thing all cleaned up you'll have
another dessert ready for us."

And the person with the gift of mercy trys to relieve embarrassment. "Oh
don't feel badly. It could have happened to anyone. Why, that happened
to me just last week. So don't feel bad about that."

So we've talked about Spiritual Gifts today: what they are not, and what
they are. They're not spiritual fruits, they're not discipline, they're
not titles, and they're not skills and abilities. It's a special
endowment from God He gives to each of us to do something in the church.
Spiritual Gifts are given for our benefit, build us up, mature us, to
equip us, prepare us for work in the church. God has a place for each
one of us in His work. And we need to find it. That's why we're having
a prayer meeting series on finding our place in the church. And we
encourage you to come.

To close with a quote from The Acts of the Apostles page 50. "The
Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who serve Him than
parents are to give good gifts to their children. For the daily baptism
of the Holy Spirit, every worker should offer his petition to God." And
Mrs. White is giving this in the context of encouragement to us that we
hunger and thirst for the gifts of the spirit. May the Lord bless you to
find your place in the church.